Lot 1885

Description

Gupta, Prakasaditya alias Bhanugupta (c.A.D. 510-525) gold stater, horseman lion-slayer type, (9.5 grams), obv. depicts king on horseback riding to right, stooping down to attack a lion, rev. Lakshmi seated facing on lotus, holding a noose and lotus, (Altekar Plate XV, 14-15, cf.BMC 552-557, Plate XXII, 1-6, Bayana Hoard, No.l0, XXXII, No.10 ). Two set drill marks, one on each side, otherwise nearly extremely fine and very rare.

Not present in the Pitchfork collection. This unique type is mirrored nowhere else in the Gupta coinage, and is the only innovative type of the later Gupta rulers. Altekar concluded that this type should be assigned to Purugupta, who seems to have ruled independently for a period c.467-468, suggesting that Prakasaditya was his biruda. Recently K.S. Shukla published a coin of the same type as above but on which the name Bhanugupta can be read in the circular legend on the obverse, together with the usual Prakasaditya on the reverse, thus confirming the identity to the assigned ruler. It seems that Prakasaditya was the biruda of Bhanugupta.